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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



/-;• 



THE VARIETIES 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES CENTS 
OF 1796. 



AN ARRANGEMENT 
BY E. GILBERT AND THOMAS L. ELDER 

OF New York. 



COPYRIGHTED 1909. 



iPUBLISHED BY; 



THOMAS L. ELDER, Numismatist and Auction Cataloguer 
Thirty-two East Twenty-third Street, New York City, U. S. A. 



Q. 







PLATE 1 






A-B 



C-D 






G-J 



H 



I-K 














9-10 



11 



12 







13 



14 



15 



16 



1796 CENTS 
GILBERT - ELDER ARRANGEMENT 



PLATE 11 





B-D-J 






C-H-K 








3.4 






7-8-9 



10-16 







11-12 



13 



15 



1796 CENTS 
GILBERT - ELDER ARRANGEMENT 



DESCRIPTIONS. 



CAP VARIETY. 

A. Obv. L of "Liberty" touches cap; stand of T. close to 
and entirely over the fore-lock. "Liberty" distant from 
milling; date well spaced, 1 touching lower lock of hair, 
and 6 near bust. Pole close to bust with end distant from 
milling. 

Rev. Left wreath stem has nineteen leaves and five ber- 
ries, and the right branch has eighteen leaves and four 
berries, wide space between "One" and "Cent"; stem 
and ribbon-ends long. Last cipher of fraction too high. 
"A" "M" and "E" of "ximerica" are connected at their 
feet. 

B. Obv. same as "A." 

Rev. The left branch of the wreath has twenty-one 
leaves and five berries, and the right twenty leaves and five 
berries. "AMER" of "America" connect at their feet, 
"N" and "E" of "One" touch at the top, also "ENT" of 
* ' Cent. ' ' There are five groups of three leaves each on the 
left branch of the wreath, and four groups of three on the 
right; the lowest leaf on the right branch points to the left 
foot of the final "A" of "America." 

C. Obv. "L" of "Liberty" nearly touches the cap, and 
"R" and "T" of the same word are very close to the hair; 
stand of " T " partly over the hair and forehead ; figure " 1 " 
of date near lower curl and "6" distant from bust, 1, 7 and 
9 being well spaced with 6 near the 9. 



Eev. Left brancli of the ■wreatli has nineteen leaves 
and the right has eighteen leaves with four berries on 
each; "AMER" of "America" connect at their feet; "A" 
and the second "T" of "States" nearly touch at the bot- 
tom ; the lowest leaf on the right branch points to the right 
foot of the final "A" of "America", stem ends are long 
and slightly curved. Obv. known as the ' * open mouth va- 
riety. ' ' 

D. Obverse same as variety "C." 

Reverse same as variety "B." 

E. "L" of "Liberty" nearly touches the cap. The stand 
of T is near, and entirely over, the fore-lock; the 1 of date 
is distant from the 7 and very close to the end of the lower 
curl of hair; the "9" is nearly as far from the 7 as the 7 
is from the 1, while the 6 is quite close to the 9 and a little 
too high. There is a break at the end of the pole connect- 
ing it with the point of the bust. 

Eev. same as variety " B. " 

F. Obverse Liberty, date and end of pole distant from mill- 
ing, with the "L" very near the cap and "R" and "T" 
near the fore-lock. Date widely spaced and with clear 
field between date and bust. 

Rev. Left branch of the wreath has nineteen leaves, 
and the right has sixteenleaves , with five berries on each 
branch. "Cent" low in wreath. "AME" of "America" 
connect at their feet; lowest leaf on right branch termi- 
nates directly under "C" of "America"; stem ends heavy. 
Legend distant from milling. 

G. Obverse a very close copy of variety "C." By a compar- 
ison of the two pieces slight differences can be detected in 
the relative positions of 1-7 and 6 of date and the hair and 
bust. The pole is not as thick as on variety "C" and is 
farther from the bust. 



Eev. The left branch of the wreath has twenty-one 
leaves, and the right twenty leaves, with four berries upon 
each; legend distant from milling, first "S" of "States" is 
low; the first "T" is joined to the "A" at the bottom; 
"AME" of ''America" are connected at their feet. The 
stem ends are thin and club-shaped. The lowest leaf on 
the right branch points to the right foot of the final "A" 
of "America"; figures of fraction distant from the divid- 
ing line, the left branch of the wreath has five groups of 
three leaves each, and the right three groups of three leav- 
es. 

H. Obverse "L" of "Liberty" touches the cap, while "T" 
is more distant from the hair than any other variety known 
to me. The pole is distant from bust and extends nearly 
to the milling. Figures of date small, uniformly spaced and 
entirely detached from milling, hair and bust. 

Rev. Legend close to wrth, many letters nearly touched 
by leaves, notably "UNITD" of "United", and "M" and 
final "A" of "America." Left branch of wrth. has 19 leav- 
es and the right 18 leaves with four berries on each branch. 
Figures of the fraction small; the first "S" of "States" is 
too large; "A" and "M" of "America" are connected at 
the base. 

I. Obverse " L " of " Liberty ' ' nearly touches the cap and " R " 
and "T" are closer to hair than on any other variety that 
is known to me. The date also is very close to the lower 
lock of hair and bust, and gives the coin the appearance of 
a large head crowding the lettering and date. 

Rev. Left branch has 18 leaves and 5 berries, the right 
branch has 17 leaves and 3 berries. The letters "U" and 
"N" of "United" are very close together but do not 
touch; the stem end at the right points to the right foot of 
the final "A" in "America"; figures of fraction small, with 
the enumerator too far to the right. 



J. Obverse same as variety Gr. Eeverse same as variety B. 
K. Obverse same as I. Eev, same as H. 
L. Obverse same as G. 

Eeverse, left brancli lias 19 leaves and 5 berries ; right 
branch, 18 leaves, 4 berries, the 15th leaf on left branch, 
under first "T" of "STATES" very imperfect, in fact, a 
mere line; "D" out of position, leaning to right; first "S" 
of "STATES" low, bow coarse and imperfect, stems 
point to right of "A" and to left of *'U". 

FILLET YAEIETY. 

No. 1. Obverse In "Liberty" '*E" and "E" joined- at the 
bottom, date is straight, uniformly spaced, except the 6, 
which is very close to the 9 and tilted to the right. 

Eev. Left branch of wrth. has 18 leaves and 3 berries, 
the upper one very small, and connected with the branch 
without a stem. Eight branch has 17 leaves and 5 berries. 
**One" is high in wreath, the word "Cent" is low; First 
" S " of " States ' ' is distant from " T ", while ' ' TAT ' ' are 
very close together. In "America" "AME" are connect- 
ed at their feet. Stem ends short, the right one pointing 
directly to the right foot of the final "A" of "America," 
and the left one to the curve of "U" of "United"; divid- 
ing line of fraction is long. 

No. 2. Obverse " L " of " Liberty ' ' slightly out of position to the 
left, "E" and "E" very close to the head; figures of date 
widely spaced, except the 6 which is a trifle nearer the 9 
than is the 7, a die break makes the date appear thus, 17-96. 

Eev. Left branch of the wrth. has 20 leaves and 5 ber- 
ries, the right 18 leaves and 4 berries; the stem-ends are 
long and club-shaped, the one to the right nearly touches 
the right foot of the final "A" of "America," and the one 
on the left nearly touches the curve of the "U" of "Unit- 



ed"; both branches terminate at top with a single leaf each, 
and as they point directly toward each other it gives the 
wreath an appearance of a perfect circle, and by this char- 
acteristic may very easily be identified. On many of this va- 
riety may be found a die-break from milling to "R" of 
''America"; thence along the top of "ICA" and curving 
upwards ends at the milling. 

No. 3. Obv. "Liberty" very near the milling, the date is nearly 
straight and evenly spaced except that the 6 (which is a 
trifle farther from the head than on No. 2) is very close to 
the 9. 

Eev. Left branch of the wreath has 19 leaves, the 
right 18 leaves, and each has four berries. The letters 
"TAT" of "States" and "AME" of "America" are con- 
nected at their feet, the lowest leaf on the right branch ter- 
minates under the left foot of the final "A" in "America." 

No. 4. Obv. This obverse is very similar to No. 2 and can be dis- 
tinguished from it by the position of figure 1 of the date in 
reference to the lowest lock of hair on the head of "Liber- 
ty". On this coin the figure 1 is a trifle farther from the 
hair than on No. 2. 

Rev. same as No. 3. 

On all the above mentioned numbers the wreath branches, 
both left and right, terminate at the top with a single leaf. 

No. 5. Obverse, Letters of "Liberty" evenly spaced, a die 
crack extends from milling through the left arm of the let- 
ter " T ", and stand of same letter to the fore-lock. Anoth- 
er die-break starts in the field to the left of the lower curl, 
passing along the lower edge of the curl, through all the 
figures of the date. The figure 1 of date touches the hair 
of lower lock, the 7 and 9 widely spaced with the 6 nearly 
touching the 9; a die-break runs from the bust to milling 
to the right of the 6 of date, 



No. 12. Obverse In "Liberty" "B" and '*E" and "T" and 
"Y" are widely spaced, the 1 of date nearly touches the 
hair and the 6 high, and decidedly tilted to the left, nearly 
touches the bust. 

Eev. same as No. 11. 

No. 13. Obverse, The distinguishing feature of this cent, and 
by which it can be easily identified, is the wide space be- 
tween the letters "E" and "T" of ''Liberty". The date 
is nearly straight and has the appearance of being crowd- 
ed. 

Rev, The left branch of the wreath has 16 leaves, and 
the right branch 19 leaves, with 5 berries on each; the rib- 
bon bows are large minus the knot, and the pendant ends 
long and sprawling; figures of fraction distant from short 
dividing line; final "A" of "America" nearly touches the 
right ribbon end. 

No. 14. Obverse, This variety can easily be identified by the 
date which is straight, and the figure 6, which is tilted to 
the right, close to the 9 and connected with it by a small 
die-break. Between the 6 and bust is a raised point like a 
period, and between bust and chin, near the neck, are two 
more. 

Rev. The left branch of the wreath has 14 leaves, 
and the right branch 18 leaves, and each has 7 berries; 
the legend is very near the milling, the letters of which are 
nearly uniformly spaced and fairly distant from the wrtb. 
This reverse is a close copy of the reverse of the 1794 cents, 
having the high ribbon bows, knot and pendant ends, and 
the fraction near the milling. It is the only variety of the 
1796 cents to have two berries immediately at the left of 
the bows. 

No. 15. Obverse "Liberty" very close to both milling and 
head, the letters "E" and "R" nearly touch the hair; in 



the date the figure 1 touches the hair, and the top of the 6 
is merged with the bust; there is a crack in the die, extend- 
ing from the milling near the 9 of date, to the left, touch- 
ing the bottoms of both 7 and 1, and then the lower curl, 
and continuing on to the milling. 

Eev. There are sixteen leaves on the left branch of the 
wreath, and nineteen on the right branch, and six berries 
on each; the lowest leaf on the inside of the left branch 
touches "C" of "Cent", and the lowest on the inside of 
the right branch touches the "T" of the same word. 
A peculiarity of this coin is a single berry on the outside 
of the right branch, under the letter "C" of "America"; 
figures of fi'action distant from short dividing line. 

No. 16. Obverse ER of ' 'Liberty" closer to head than to milling; 
figures of date evenly spaced, except that 9 and 6 are closer 
than the other figures, the 6 is double-cut. 

Eeverse same as No. 10. 

Note— This specimen is in Mr. Miller's collection, it 
is a superb uncirculated coin, and only one other known of 
this variety. 

No. 17. Obv. resembles obv. 6, but "ER" further from hair and 
1 of date much nearer curl. The die is badly broken over 
"Y" and along milling to "R." 

Rev. same as No. 6, 
No. 18. Obverse, same as No. 1. 

Reverse, left branch has 16 leaves and 5 berries; right 
branch, 19 leaves and 4 berries; right branch terminates 
with 2 leaves, legend distant from milling; "D" low and 
out of position; first "S" of "STATES" low; lowest leaf 
on right points to left foot of "A". 

No. 19. Obverse, same as No. 12. 

Reverse, left branch has 19 leaves and 5 berries; right 
branch 18 leaves and 4 berries, a berry on each side of the 



bow, letters of legend large and distant from milling, a 
leaf on left almost touches "D" of "UNITED." Frac- 
tional line long, reaching close to left ribbon-end; letters 
in "CENT" irregular, top of "N" higher than "E", and 
"T" leaning to right. 

No. 20. Obverse, "LIBERTY" evenly spaced,with "ER" close 
to hair, date curved, with even spacing, 1 close to curl, and 
6 midway between bust and milling. 

Reverse, left branch has 16 leaves and 5 berries; right 
branch, 19 leaves and 5 berries, right branch terminates 
with 2 leaves; lowest leaf en right points to "C"; stems 
short, right stem pointing to right staud of "A"; left stem 
to the curve of "U"; "AT" and "AM" united at base; 
figures distant from fractional line. 

No. 21. Obverse, same as No. 14. 
Reverse, same as No. 5. 

Note. In the LIBERTY CAP Series L, and in the FILLET 
Series, Nos. 19, 20 and 21, are from the collection of Mr. Pyfer, 
of Lancaster, Pa. 



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